Scavenger Hunt
by Rangergirl3
Summary: The Paladins and their new ally have to travel the stars together - but sometimes, even the best laid plans go badly astray. (or) Haggar finally tracks down the Black Lion, and not everyone makes it out. Lots of Shiro/Allura and Space Family. Tenth story in the 'Lost Paladins' series. Immediately followed by 'Broken Paladins'.
1. Prologue (Making Plans)

Keith woke up to find that the others had almost finished dinner, but they had saved him a whole bunch of - whatever it was. It was food. Food was a good word to describe it.

"There's dessert too!" Pidge said as she saw him sit up and stretch. Lance pointed proudly at an entire plate of what looked like purple brownies and grinned.

"Really?" Keith asked, still feely pretty groggy, but interested all the same. He rubbed his eyes and let out a curse as he remembered his left hand was still healing.

Hunk's friendly face winced empathetically as he pulled out a chair for Keith. "Oh, sorry, man, I know that's gotta hurt-"

A few weeks ago, Keith would have snapped something brusque. Now, he settled for a gritted " _Just_ _ **some**_ ," between his teeth as he came over to sit down in the chair Hunk had pulled out for him. He saw Shiro look over at him - the Black Paladin was sitting next to Coran and -

"Allura!" Keith said, his memories of what had happened earlier that day rushing back to him. He stopped in his tracks, turning to look around at his team. "Did we find Sendak - is he - "

Pidge reached over and tugged on Keith's sleeve, pulling him towards the chair again. "Yes, Keith," she said, "and he's really, really, _really_ dead. All dead, not mostly dead."

Keith felt a relieved breath rush out of him as he found himself sitting in a chair between Pidge and Hunk. They must have pulled him into it. Keith found that slightly annoying. He turned and looked quizzically down at Pidge, feeling oddly puzzled and a little dazed.

"Why am I so - disoriented?" he asked Pidge, and she grinned at him as she pushed a big plate full of food at him.

"Afftereffects of pain meds," she said. "Don't worry, we've got more if you need 'em later."

Keith hadn't realized how hungry he was until he began eating. He practically inhaled the food. As he did, he saw Shiro grinning over at him, so Keith waved a spork at his friend in a 'hey' sort of greeting. Allura and Coran were smiling over at Keith too.

This was kinda weird. Why were they smiling at him?

" 's up?" he asked. Allura nodded at his bandaged hand. "Rayzor told us what happened to your hand," she said. "And he told the Council how you almost kept Sendak from - " she broke off, gesturing vaguely, clearly not wanting to bring up bad memories. "Well, the important thing is that you showed phenomenal reflexes in the tunnels, Keith. And I wanted to thank you for it."

" 's no big deal," Keith mumbled. He still felt pretty out of it, but he didn't like thinking he'd shown off. He'd just tried to keep Sendak from taking Allura. Everyone else had tried to do the same thing.

Shiro leaned back in his chair and laughed softly. "I told you he'd downplay it," he said. Keith felt slight annoyance at the words, but then Lance grinned over at Keith and pointed again towards the plate of what looked like purple brownies, which were near Keith's left hand.

"Let it be known," Lance said, taking on a noble and sacrificial air, "that the Paladins have stuck to their code of honor and saved dessert for their injured fellow-"

"I'll give _you_ injured," Keith muttered under his breath as he swigged his drink. Pidge and Hunk laughed at that, and Lance beamed as well.

"Oh yeah, he's almost back to normal," he said as he reached out for a brownie. Keith swiped the top one off the plate as Lance's fingers drew near, and Lance made a sound of mock disbelief and horror.

"Thief!" he said, throwing a hand against his own forehead dramatically. "Oh - how dare thee!" He made a dramatic choking sound - a fake sob? - and Pidge giggled at the over-the-top theatrics.

Keith had already bit into the brownie. Suddenly, he couldn't believe how much the purple brownie tasted like Earth chocolate chip cookies. It was incredible.

He eyed the plate again, and Lance saw, and pushed the plate towards him. "Dude, seriously, we saved these for you," he said. "Take as many as you want. We had tons." Hunk nodded as Keith glanced around at them, grabbed a few more brownie-space-cookies, and pushed the plate back towards the middle of the table.

"Take some," Keith said. "Hurry - while I'm still coming off the pain pills, before I can change my mind-"

Pidge muttered "Yeah, well, never can have too many cookies," and grabbed a few off the plate, shooting Keith a half-smile as she did so.

Keith glanced around at the rest of the table and saw that Rayzor had just entered the room. The others saw and all turned to face the Proselyt as he approached the table.

The atmosphere of the room didn't cool, exactly, but it did became less relaxed, and a bit more formal. Coran moved his chair back so that he could stand up to greet Rayzor, but the man waved one clawed hand in a gesture that said 'No need,' and took a seat at the far end of the table.

The leader of the guards nodded to them in what seemed to be an informal greeting. Then he glanced over at Keith, and asked, somewhat awkwardly, "Glad to see you're awake." Funnily enough, it didn't sound like he was being condescending.

Keith swallowed the last of his first space-brownie-cookie and shrugged, as if to say, "Yeah, well, it's nice be on my feet again."

Rayzor turned his attention back to the table at large, and said, "I know you've all had a long day - "

"-'s kind of an understatement," Keith said, and only realized he'd spoken out loud when Rayzor turned his gaze back to him. Keith felt Pidge tense next to him, as if she expected the blue-skinned alien to take offense, but Rayzor seemed only slightly taken aback, and then seemed to guess what was the cause of the interruption.

"Pain meds?" he asked, and Hunk nodded, not cooly, but a bit abruptly.

"It's not his fault," Lance said quickly. "He only woke up a few minutes ago-" but Rayzor was nodding in what seemed to be understanding.

"I'm familiar with them," Rayzor said. "Greatly effective, but the side effects can be - hard to predict." He looked towards the head of the table, at Shiro and Allura and Coran, and asked, politely - "I can come back later, if I came at a bad time -"

The two Alteans and the Black Paladin exchanged looks, and then Shiro looked over at Keith.

"What do you think, Keith?" Shiro asked. "Either way's fine. If you'd like to rest, I don't want you to feel like you have to stay - we can always catch you up later-"

Keith shook his head. "-no, I'm fine," he said. "-just - just more likely to talk now, is all." Pidge pushed the cookie space brownies back towards him, and Keith smirked with sudden inspiration. He _was_ still hungry. And the dessert _was_ delicious.

He pulled the plateful of space-brownie-cookies closer towards him and began eating again, taking careful, measured bites so he didn't make himself sick, and gave Shiro a thumbs-up.

" 's cool," he said. " 'm okay now."

He took another bite of space-cookie-brownie, and saw that Shiro couldn't keep a half-smile off his face as they all turned back towards Rayzor, who had leaned forward, bringing his elbows to lean upon the tabletop in what seemed to be a concentrated effort to help make the atmosphere a bit less formal.

"Please," Coran said, bringing his chair in closer to the table again, "- Rayzor - continue."

Rayzor nodded, looking at them all and beginning to speak. Keith chewed as quietly as he could, and no one - not even Rayzor - seemed to mind him eating while they listened to the leader of the guards.

"Coran informed me - while we were out tying up loose ends - that your Castle is currently undergoing a full recharge cycle," Rayzor said. "I understand that to mean that your Castle is - what is the word - effectively grounded until the cycle is complete?"

Allura and Coran nodded. Rayzor nodded in reply. "Right," he said. "Since the Lions are all here on the surface, Coran and I also spoke about ways to camouflage or conceal them, to ensure their safety until they can return to their bays. There are caves large enough for four Lions, but not five."

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised," Shiro said. "With your entire people living underground, there would be very few caves near enough to the surface to allow for a Lion to pass through without inflicting - "

"-structural damage to the tunnels around it?" Keith said. Feeling his face heat up as he realized he'd interrupted again, he shoved another cookie into his mouth and began to chew. Shiro broke off, nodded at Keith to show he'd said exactly what Shiro had been thinking, and then Coran interjected.

"Well - actually, as regards to the Lions' condition, the Princess and I have some information for the team - and for you, Rayzor."

Allura nodded in her turn, turning towards the Paladins and Rayzor, all of whom looked extremely curious.

"As you know, each of your Lions is the Guardian Spirit of a particular element -"

"-they….are…?" Keith muttered. Even as he did, he scowled at himself and grabbed another brownie, feeling embarrassed and annoyed at himself.

Of course he knew Red's element was fire. This lingering mental fog from the pain meds _sucked_. Though to be fair, his hand felt way, _way_ better than it had before, so it wasn't all bad.

Hunk patted Keith's shoulder reassuringly as Allura continued.

" - and some of you have already seen aspects of your Lion's elements in battle - but what you don't know is that it is traditional for each new Paladin of Voltron to seek for a special crystal that helps augment their Lion's power."

Every Paladin had a different reaction. Shiro's eyebrows shot into his hair, Lance's mouth dropped open, Pidge made a startled - but excited sound - Hunk said 'Yes!' in a half-whispered whoop of joy, and Keith swallowed the last space-brownie-cookie too fast and had to grab a drink of water and swig it down to keep from coughing.

Coran grinned at each of them. "Yes," he said, "It's a special journey that usually takes place in the first few months after being chosen as a Paladin of Voltron."

Hunk raised an inquisitive hand. "So…um…why only mention this now?" he asked. "I know we've been busy lately - but is there a time limit on this crystal thing, or…what?"

Coran nodded at the Yellow Paladin. "There is a time limit of sorts," he said. "If you wait too long to find your crystal and bring it to your Lion, it becomes harder to find the right one. It's been theorized that waiting too long might result in a - a sort of break - between Lion and Paladin. Mind you, that's never happened, but we figured we wouldn't like to chance it!"

"-'s an understatement…" Keith said, but this time only to himself.

 _Well, thank God that at least the 'talking out loud to the entire freaking room' moments were over._ Keith suddenly wondered why Coran and Allura were telling Rayzor this information as well as the Paladins.

"And," Coran continued just as Keith was about to ask, "we thought that now might be a good time to search for your specific crystals! Of course, we'll need to be careful while we're out looking - we can't have the Galra spot us without the Castle. But, the good news is, we are still well within the usual time perimeters for finding your crystals."

"Where can we find these crystals?" Hunk asked. "A Balmera?"

Coran waggled a hand back and forth in a 'sometimes' gesture. "It's possible, and it's been known to happen," he said. "But a Paladin doesn't always find his - or her- crystal in the same place as his fellow Paladins. Besides, if one of you had been drawn to your crystal on the Balmera we helped a short time ago, I _know_ you would have felt it before we left."

Hunk looked a little disappointed that he wouldn't get to see Shay again, but he asked, "So…where else can we find the-"

"You _helped_ a _Balmera_?" Rayzor asked, astonished. Realizing he'd interrupted Hunk, he coughed and gestured for the Yellow Paladin to continue. Hunk went on, seeming to thaw a little bit towards Rayzor because of how impressed the leader of the guards had been at the idea of them helping a sentient planet, along with all of its inhabitants.

"-find the crystals?" Hunk asked again, and Allura and Coran looked towards Rayzor. "Well, that's what we wanted to ask Rayzor about," Allura said.

Everyone turned to look at the leader of the guards, who suddenly seemed wary and somewhat confused. "Uh…what?" he asked, and Shiro suddenly realized how very, very similar Keith and Rayzor were. Neither were good at finding words, both were stubborn as hell, (and sometimes just as awkward), and they each preferred combat to any type of council meetings.

The Black Paladin almost chuckled at the realization, but Allura had begun to speak, so instead he turned his attention to the Princess of Altea.

 _Wow, she was beautiful - No. Focus._ he told himself. _Listen now, admire later. Wow, she was_ _ **so**_ _beautiful - no, FOCUS,_ he told himself again, just managing to catch her words as she spoke to Rayzor.

"We wanted to ask if we could use one of your ships to help us search for the crystals," Allura said. "It shouldn't take more than a few days, and it would be extremely helpful for us in keeping a low profile."

"I'll say," Pidge agreed. "The Lions are pretty distinct. Anyone with half a brain who knows about the crystals and the time limit is going to figure out what we're looking for - and Haggar and Zarkon are sure to realize it if they see the Lions aren't with the Castle."

Rayzor tapped his claws thoughtfully against the table. "Hmm," he said. "I assume you are thinking of bringing one of the Lions with the ship? To keep it concealed from the Galra while also using it for reaching the crystals?"

Coran nodded. "That was our hope," he said. "We couldn't have kept the Lions in their hangers during the Castle's recharge cycle - it would been entirely too risky. But a stealthy mission like this one - a single Lion and a ship to help us search would be entirely feasible."

Lance was bouncing up and down in his chair, he was so excited at the thought of finding something for Blue. Hunk was tapping his chin thoughtfully, muttering to himself about what kind of crystal would best suit his Lion. Pidge seemed very interested, and even Keith seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the idea. His eyes were fully clear now - it seemed the mind fog the medicine had caused had finally worn off.

Rayzor was nodding to himself, and he seemed confident when he spoke. "I think it could be arranged," he said. He paused for a moment, seemingly reluctant to say what he had to next. "I _will_ have to speak to the Council - but I am in favor of this plan," he hastened to add.

Allura could tell Rayzor was being genuine when he continued, saying, "I fully intend to convince them this is the best course of action - however, I'm sure they'll want a pilot familiar with our ships to have control of the transport ship. I would be happy to put myself forward as a possible pilot for this mission. I would need to take a crew, of course, but I could pilot the ship by myself if it came to that."

Pidge looked over at Rayzor, startled. "You would do that?" she asked. The tall, blue-skinned man smiled slightly over at her then, but it was a sincere expression.

"I would," he said. "Up to this point, the Council has done very little to aid you in the manner allies should. I intend to remedy that."

Keith looked over at Rayzor and felt like - maybe - just maybe - he had come to like this guy. Sort of. A little. Kinda.

Lance pumped a fist into the air, excitement all over his face. "Cool!" he said. "It'll be like a - a space scavenger hunt!"

Hunk chuckled, even as Pidge adjusted her glasses and smiled. "Yeah…" she said, grinning hugely, "but at the end of it, our Lions will get even more powerful. That is a pretty bad ass scavenger hunt."

Rayzor looked around at them. "One last thing before I go to the Council with this idea," he said. "Which Lion are we taking?"

Shiro looked across at his team and smiled. "Mine," he said. "I think Black might be familiar with how the crystal-gathering thing happened in the past."

"Because she's the mom of the pack?" Lance asked. Hunk chortled and Pidge sputtered. "Shiro is Space _Dad_!", and Keith glanced over at Rayzor - who was looking a bit confused - and shrugged, spreading his hands out in 'what can you do' sort of gesture.

"It's a long story," he said, but Allura was nodding at Shiro's suggestion. "I think Black is the best choice," she said. "Not only is Shiro the leader of the team, but I think his instincts are right here. Black will be able to help us the most if we encounter difficulties with the crystals." She sighed, but continued. "I wish we could take each Lion with its Paladin on an individual quest to get the crystals, but with the Galra Empire as strong as it is, and with the Castle's recharge cycle, it's just not what our first plan should be."

Everyone nodded in understanding, and Rayzor stood. "I'll call a Council meeting," he said. "I'll try to get an answer to you by this time tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll arrange for your four Lions' caves to be cleared and ready by the morning."

Allura nodded her thanks, rising as well. Coran and Shiro also rose, and together, they made a polite bow of farewell to Rayzor. Rayzor returned it, and then he left the room. Coran, Allura, and Shiro all sat back down at the table after Rayzor had gone.

"Wow!" Pidge said, looking after Rayzor as he disappeared out of sight down the corridor. "You know, I think he might actually be kinda likeable?" She scratched her head. "Maybe? Eventually? Years down the line?"

"Maybe…" Lance said, crossing his arms defensively over his chest and glowering at the doorway. "Or maybe he's trying to trick us."

Hunk patted his friend on the back reassuringly. "Nah, I don't think so," he said. "If he were trying to get in our way, wouldn't it be easier to keep us from going to search for the crystals in the first place?"

Keith nodded at Hunk's words. "That would make more sense to me," he said. "Flying into space for this kind of mission isn't going to be easy - and anyway, it's not like Black is going to let anyone get away with harming us."

Shiro smiled at that, leaned back in his chair, and crossed his arms behind his head.

"No one's going to harm any of you," he said, and Coran saw that although the smile was kind, there was iron in Shiro's eyes. If Keith had been looking at his friend, he would have seen exactly what Shiro was thinking.

 _Harm any of you?_

 _Over my dead body._


	2. Setting Out

The Council went along with Rayzor's recommendation in the end, although Keith strongly suspected that it was mostly due to his position as leader of the guards that the Council decided to consider and eventually 'grant his request' instead of flat out denying it from the word go.

Pretentious assholes, the lot of them.

Not that Keith ever really saw the Council. They seemed anxious to avoid any personal contact with him or any member of Team Voltron, and Keith could have sworn that he once saw a far-off Council member turn and practically sprint in the other direction as Allura walked down the corridor.

He told Shiro as much, and the Black Paladin threw back his head and laughed. "I wouldn't be surprised," he said. "She really laid into them after we got you into the healing pod. I heard most of it." He grinned at his friend, and Keith knew Shiro had throughly enjoyed listening to _that_ conversation.

Keith grinned back. "So-when do we leave?" he asked. "Any word back from Rayzor yet?"

Shiro nodded. "I was just coming to tell you - we're all set to go. Once you four take your Lions into the caves, I'll fly us onto their ship in Black - and - well, we go on a space scavenger hunt."

Keith looked around, saw that it was only him and Shiro in the corridor, and lowered his voice. "Council approval or not, I'm going to keep Red's particle barrier active while he's on the ground." Shiro nodded at him, his face turning serious.

"Good. I'm telling the others to do the same. Short of the planet splitting apart, nothing should be able to move the Lions from the tunnels once you do that." Shiro smiled then, and it was a confident smile. "Unless their pilots come and fly them out again, that is."

Keith bared his teeth in a wide smile. "Oh yes," he said, "That's the idea."

The trip started off well. The crew were all loyal members of the guard that Rayzor could - and did - personally vouch for. Coran and Allura were satisfied that the search for the crystals would take up very little time, especially with the Black Lion's ability to travel very far in a very short amount of time if need be.

"And anyway," Coran told Shiro once they were underway (and out of the Council's earshot), "the Castle should only need a few days for the recharge cycle to be complete. Once that happens, we'll be much more mobile and able to travel with our Lions all together again. Also, we are already nearing a system that Allura says looks promising. She wanted me to ask you to bring Lance to Black so you two can be ready to go when we arrive."

Shiro nodded, looking around. "Where _did_ everyone go?" he asked. Coran shrugged. "I think Rayzor offered to take them to the secondary control bridge - something about being able to see the stars without being in the crew's way? Or maybe it was his way." Coran shrugged again, smiling. "I think the other Paladins just wanted to see as much as the ship as they could."

Shiro nodded, asked Coran which direction the secondary bridge was in, and headed in that direction. As he neared the door, he thought he heard the other Paladins' voices raised in some sort of heated discussion.


	3. Red vs Blue

Hunk was leaning on a railing, looking a little bit forlorn. He sighed, putting his head down so it rested on his hands. "I know we've only been gone about an hour…but I miss Yellow already."

Lance looked up from where he'd been walking around the secondary comms desk and hurried over to Hunk. "I know, buddy," he said, "and I miss Blue too - but we won't gone for long - and check it out!"

He threw his arms wide open and turned in a circle, smiling like someone who had just hit the nerdiest, geekiest jackpot of all time as he shouted in joy.

"IT'S BASICALLY STAR TREK!"

Pidge had to give Lance that one - the ship they were traveling on did indeed possess a bridge that looked almost exactly like the USS Enterprise.

The actual crew - and Rayzor, who was piloting the ship - were in the main control room upstairs, but this secondary control room was an almost exact copy of the main one. Pidge was pretty sure it had been made that way on purpose - basically a control room backup. She applauded the foresight of whoever had designed the ship.

"I MEAN - " Lance said, dropping his arms back to his sides but still grinning like the cat who ate the canary, "HOLY CROW! ISN'T THIS AMAZING?!"

From where he stood by the wall, his arms crossed as usual, Keith couldn't resist joining in. "All it lacks is a teleporter," he said. Then he frowned, thinking for a moment. "Well...that and Vulcans."

Lance turned to look at Keith, his jaw dropping open. "What?!" he said, his tone astonished. "You - you've seen - "

Keith glared over at him again, feeling annoyed but slightly - just slightly - that there was something oddly comforting in arguing like they always did.

This wasn't the Castle, and it wasn't Earth - but it was home.

Huh. Home _could_ be people.

Keith had almost forgotten that.

"Of _course_ I've seen Star Trek!" he said. "What kind of person do you think I am?!"

Lance spluttered, and Keith waited for his answer. "But - but - but you're a red shirt!" Lance finally exclaimed, and Pidge had to sit down by Hunk because she was laughing so hard at the almost insulted look on Keith's face as he exclaimed, " _WHAT_?!"

Lance gestured wildly as he spoke, as if he were frantically conducting an invisible and inaudible symphony. "You're _totally_ a red shirt! You run headfirst into dangerous situations, you always end up with some kind of injury, and you. Pilot. The. Red. Lion. Star Trek is a toxic fandom for you, dude - seriously, do you have a death wish?!"

Keith felt himself grinning even as he spat back a reply. "What do you suggest - Star Wars?! Like the people with _red_ lightsabers were ever the good guys!"

"There was Revan!" Lance exclaimed, and Keith threw his arms up in the air as if completely fed up with everyone in the room.

"ONLY IF YOU PLAYED LIGHT SIDE!" he yelled, temporarily forgetting that no one besides the humans on the ship would understand what the hell he was talking about if they somehow overheard him.

A peal of laughter drowned out Lance's next words, and they turned to see Shiro had entered the room at some point in the conversation and had now leaned against the wall, holding his sides and shaking with laughter. Keith hadn't seen Shiro laugh this hard since the First Food Fight of Unity.

It was such an out of character moment for their leader that the other Paladins just stared at him for a few seconds before bursting into laughter themselves. Even Keith couldn't completely hold back a laugh or two, and for a short time, the Paladins of Voltron just tried to regain their composure.

"I - came - to tell you - Lance - " Shiro finally managed after trying to speak for several seconds, "-that - Coran and - Allura - say that - we're approaching the - edge of - a planet that's mostly ice so—"

Lance perked up immediately, and Shiro motioned for him to come and follow him. As they both passed by the secondary comms desk, Lance noticed a small red light blinking at him that hadn't been there a few minutes before. He stopped and looked, and realized - with a sudden mix of additional hilarity and mounting embarrassment - that the entire laugh fest had just broadcasted across the entire ship.

Lance wondered if maybe he could find the button he'd hit and turn it off again. Shiro saw where he was looking and realized what had happened. He stopped, looked at the comms desk for a few seconds, hit a small button, and the blinking red light flicked off. Then he gestured for Lance to follow him as he turned again towards the door.

"Come on," he said. "It'll be you and me going to get your crystal. There really isn't any earth or forest to speak of down there, so Allura thinks if there is a crystal for a Lion down there, it'll just be yours."

"Uh-Shiro?" Lance asked as they headed towards the bay where Black waited for them. "Do you - uh - do you think the Proselyt will think we're - you know - kind of stupid now? After hearing us laugh over - over all the Earth jokes as hard as we did?"

Shiro shrugged. "The Council probably would have," he said. A hard light came into his eyes, and Lance was really, really glad that look wasn't aimed at him. "But you and I both know what that's worth. Anyway, it was nothing serious. If Rayzor brings it up, I'll explain what happened, and we can laugh off later with Coran and Allura."

Lance sighed in relief as he and Shiro rounded the final corner and waited for Black to lower her ramp for them.

"Thanks for not being mad at me," Lance said. Shiro looked over at him, surprised, and Lance amended his statement. "The - the officers at the Garrison - they - they would've gotten really mad if they'd seen I'd made a mistake like that."

Shiro stopped walking up the ramp, turned around, and put a hand on Lance's shoulder. "Lance."

Lance looked up into Shiro's face, expecting a lecture about being more careful in the future or how it was stupid to be so -

"Everyone makes mistakes," Shiro said. "But when it comes down to it, you're _really_ careful about the things that matter."

Lance seemed startled. "I - I am?" he asked.

Shiro nodded. "Of _course_ you are. I've seen the way you act around people you care about. You try to help them laugh, or at least to make them smile. You _saved_ Coran, Lance. Without a second's thought. Don't underestimate yourself."

With that, Shiro jerked his head back towards where Black still waited to fly them to the planet. "Come on," he said. "Let's go see if we can find that crystal."

Lance grinned as he sprinted up the ramp after Shiro.

He had the best leader ever.


	4. Stars

When they got back from the planet, Lance went straight to the secondary control deck to show the crystal to the other Paladins.

"It's _gorgeous_!" Lance told them - again - holding up the fist-sized gem that glowed and shimmered more than a royal blue sapphire. The light reflected back into his eyes, and it seemed to shimmer even more brightly. "I think Blue is going to _love_ this!"

Pidge stuck her nose close to the shining surface, her face refracted back at her countless times.

" _Wow_ ," she said. "Nice job, Lance. I'm impressed you found one so fast - you said it was in the middle of an ice formation?"

Lance nodded and beamed at the room in general, his face pleased.

"Oh, man, I hope I can find one so nice," Hunk said. "I just want to get the best one I can for my Lion, you know?"

Lance grinned happily over at Hunk and said, "I'm sure you will, buddy! It'll just call to you, and you'll know there's nothing else quite like it! It'll almost feel like finding your Lion again!"

Hunk seemed to relax a little bit. "As long as I don't have to drill through another mountain to find my crystal," he said half-jokingly. "Though I _totally_ would," he hastened to add, "if I had to. Yellow's _absolutely_ worth it."

Even as he said it, Pidge heard Allura call her name and raised her head, saw the Princess outside in the corridor, beckoning to her, and the Green Paladin sprang to her feet.

"My turn!" she said, grabbing her helmet and sprinting out of the room. Keith watched her go thoughtfully, flexing the fingers on his left hand. They'd been able to take the splints and bandages off a few hours earlier.

"You think we've gone far out of the system yet?" he asked Hunk, who shrugged.

"I'm sure Allura would have told us if we had," Hunk said. "And anyway, we're being, like, _crazy_ super stealthy."

Keith looked back out at the stars thoughtfully. He was sitting on the edge of the bridge's platform, all of space spread out before him. "Yeah," he said. "I guess so."

He sat back and just stared out at the stars as the starship sailed on through oceans of light and dark, ribbons of color spreading out from stars near and far.

"I just never imagined that - empty space - could be so…" he said, and then realized both Hunk and Lance were looking at him. He almost stopped, but decided it wouldn't hurt to finish the thought, and he looked back out at the stars as he said it, "…beautiful."

He half-expected Lance to make a joke about Keith being a softie, but to Keith's surprise, neither Hunk nor Lance said anything. Keith could see them both nodding out of the corner of his eye, and he allowed himself a very rare, very genuine smile as he stared out at the endless space of sky.

There was a sudden dark spot against the stars, and Keith could just barely see the form of the Black Lion take off and dive towards a planet beneath them, a beautiful planet, a sea of lush green forest on the ground and white clouds in the atmosphere.

"Ten bucks Pidge finds her crystal before dinner," Lance said.

Hunk grinned over at him. "No bet - I'm _sure_ she will."


	5. Dinner Conversations

"Wow!" Lance exclaimed, coming over to look at the shimmering emerald green crystal that Pidge brought back with her. She beamed up at him, genuine delight on her face.

"Yeah!" she said, grinning up at them all. "I'm pretty happy with it."

"Whoa…" Hunk said, peering at all its many facets and ridges. "So unique! Pidge, you really found one of a kind!"

As Pidge grinned at them all again, Coran poked his head into the room and summoned them all to dinner, and said that Shiro and Allura were going to meet them in the dining hall. As Pidge headed out to put her crystal away in the safe designated for it, the other three Paladins followed Coran out of the secondary control deck.

"We're at the end of the day already?" Keith asked, surprised. It hadn't felt that long to him. Coran smiled and shrugged at him as he answered.

"Days are a bit shorter by the Proselyt clock, apparently," Coran said. "But we're making great progress! Two crystals down, and only three to go!"

The meal that evening was served in a manner similar to a school's cafeteria.

Lance didn't really know what to do once he'd gotten his tray and had been served, but when he saw that Allura and Coran had already sat down one of the long tables, he just slid his tray onto the table as well and sat down next to Coran.

 _It's not so bad,_ he thought. _This kind of looks like a - a space Great Hall - like at Hogwarts. But there's no Teacher's table. Maybe we're all just supposed to sit together on the benches at just one of the long tables? I guess there really aren't that many people on the ship…_

The Paladins all sat together at just one end of the long rectangular tables, but when Rayzor came in - the first Proselyt to come into the dining hall - Keith waved him over. At first, it seemed Rayzor was uncertain whether to join them or not, but he did come and sat down - somewhat awkwardly - on Keith's side of the table.

"So," Keith said, turning to him, obviously searching for some kind of conversation starter. "Um…what's the name of the star system we're traveling through?"

Rayzor said a word that sounded a lot like…well. Consonants and vowels mixed together.

Apparently Keith's face expressed his confusion because Rayzor stopped trying to sound out the word in a way Keith would understand and just shrugged.

"It's a system that has no trace of Galra scouts," he said. "So…I guess you could call it a safe zone."

"Cool," Keith said. "Why safe instead of secure?"

Rayzor took a bite of his meal as he answered. "There are lots of asteroid fields around here. It discourages ships from coming into this part of space, but it won't stop them if they are really determined. Right now, we're far enough away from the asteroid fields so they shouldn't be a problem to us, but we don't usually venture out this far in the system. Hopefully we won't have to go much father tomorrow-"

The rest of the crew had begun to come into the dining room now, and Rayzor stopped to motion them towards the table where he sat with the Paladins and the Alteans.

One of them - someone really loyal to Rayzor, apparently - came and sat next to him, and then the others followed suit.

Shiro kept an eye on the crew as everyone began talking and eating, but no one seemed to be shooting dirty looks at Keith, so that had to count for something. He noticed Allura concentrating on something so hard, her spork missed her meatballs and plunged into her salad instead. A few bits of pale pink lettuce flew up and landed on Shiro's arm that lay resting on the table. Allura realized what had happened and squeaked, reaching over to pluck off them off his arm, but he just laughed, shaking his arm once to flick them off.

"I'm sorry!" Allura gasped, the tips of her ears bright pink. "I was listening to - um - well - "

She glanced down towards Rayzor's crew and dropped her voice a bit so that only Shiro and Coran who sat right next to her could catch her words. "I was trying to hear if any of them were - well - you know - "

"Thinking less of Keith than they should out loud?" Coran asked, his voice also pitched low. Allura felt a slight color rise to her face and she nodded, embarrassed to have been caught eavesdropping, but Coran smiled at her and gestured to his own pointed ears. "I haven't caught anything," he confessed. "But one of them did say that he trusted the captain's judgement more than the Councils, and those around him agreed."

Allura smiled and looked back to where Keith still spoke to Rayzor. The two of them seemed deep in conversation about which maneuvers worked best in avoiding asteroids.

"I have no idea what it's called, I just _did_ it," Keith was saying, and Rayzor lifted an eyebrow in something resembling disbelief and - perhaps - amazement.

"It's true," Hunk chimed in. "He was just going - zoom - zoom - whoosh! though those asteroids - it was incredible to watch!"

Pidge was nodding. "Oh, yeah, I was jealous."

Overall, it seemed that the rest of the crew - although a bit distant - were amiable enough.

Of course, Shiro privately thought that hearing all of the Paladins laughing so hard they'd fallen over might have had something to do with it. He watched Rayzor for any sign of wanting to bring up the incident, but the leader of the guards - and now currently the captain of the ship - did not seem to feel the incident worth mentioning. Shiro relaxed slightly and began listening to Coran and Allura's discussion of which direction to search the next day.

As the meal progressed, Rayzor thought about letting the Paladins know about the comms mishap, but he decided that it had been a simple mistake, and nothing major enough to mention. He was almost certain the Black Paladin had taken action to ensure it would not happen again - and anyway, it had been…almost pleasant to hear the young ones laugh so very hard at what seemed to be pure nonsense.

Rayzor made a mental note to ask Keith sometime about who 'Revan' was.


	6. Difficulties Arise

The next morning, Allura greeted Shiro, Keith, and Hunk with a smile, but a slightly downcast face. "It seems that we might have a bit of trouble with these next few crystals," she said.

"Are they somewhere the Galra are watching?" Shiro asked, and when Allura shook her head 'no,' he let out a quiet breath of relief.

"I don't want to seem overly nervous," Shiro said, "but the last thing I want to do is get anywhere near Galra space with the Black Lion without the Castle or the other Lions nearby."

Allura nodded in agreement before she explained the manner of the difficulty. "It feels as if these next few crystals are….harder to locate, somehow, like I need to be closer to them before I can feel their possible presence."

"Can't the ship take you in closer?" Keith asked, but Allura shook her head again. "It seems that I'll have to be closer to the stars themselves as we pass," she said. "So - I spoke to Rayzor, and he's agreed to lend us one of the smaller shuttles aboard ship."

"But if you're focused on locating the crystals," Hunk asked her, "who's going to pilot the shuttle?"

At Allura's side, Coran twirled his mustaches and winked at them, grinning. "I shall, of course!" He said brightly. "Although…" here his shoulders drooped slightly, and he seemed to deflate for an instant, "- it would be easier if I had someone to help me track the coordinates as Allura gave them to me - and maybe another pilot to help if I needed to take a break-"

"Sounds like you need a pilot pal!" Lance cut in, coming up behind the Alteans and putting an arm over both Allura and Coran's shoulders, a huge grin on his face. "One pilot, volunteering as tribute!"

"Excellent!" Coran beamed at him, even as Pidge jumped up and down, raising her hand above her head, pretending to be in class.

"-And I can help track the coordinates!" she said. "I've wanted to get a close look at one of these shuttles systems for ages now-"

Coran threw out his arms, exclaiming "Marvelous!" Still beaming, he turned to both Keith and Hunk.

"Now, it might be best for both of you to come on the shuttle with us," he said. Allura nodded. "Since these crystals are harder to locate, I think I'll also have to be in close proximity to the pilot to sense when the crystal is near. Otherwise, we might miss it, and we don't want to waste any time."

Shiro nodded. "Are you sure I shouldn't just fly my Lion by the shuttle as you search?" he asked. "I don't like the thought of leaving you alone out there. What if something happens?"

"As much as it's difficult to admit," Allura said, "The shuttle will be less obtrusive than the Lion, so we do still need to limit the Lion's time outside of the ship as much as possible." She smiled at Shiro then, seeing he still didn't like the idea of her being out in the shuttle without him.

"Only three more crystals to go," she said. "And - good news! I can sense that we're nearing one now." She clapped her hands together briskly, encouragingly. "All right!" she said, "Let's do this!"

As they headed towards the shuttle, and Shiro turned to head towards the bay where Black was, he heard Keith whisper a low, _"_ She just stole your line _, Space Dad-_ " with a chuckle, but even as Shiro turned around again and reached over to give his friend a friendly slap upside the head, the Red Paladin dodged his attempt and loped swiftly after the others, chuckling to himself.

Shiro snorted, feeling his mouth curl into a smile. "Space _Dad_ ," he muttered, turning the corner towards the bay where Black waited for him, not really thinking about what he was saying, just talking under his breath out loud."I'm only, like, _six_ years older than you, Keith, and now you go around calling me Space _Dad_ just like everyone else-"

With a shock, Shiro realized he'd almost run right into Rayzor. The captain had just come around the same corner, and Shiro only just barely avoided knocking into him.

"Sorry-" Shiro said, regaining his balance. "I wasn't watching where I was -"

He stopped as he saw that Rayzor was looking down the corridor that led to the shuttles. The captain seemed lost in thought for a moment, but even as Shiro looked at him, the captain blinked and looked back at the Black Paladin.

"It's no trouble," he said. "I was - remembering someone." Rayzor cleared his throat and looked down at a tablet he held, where Shiro could see stars maps shining, waiting to be summoned for reference.

"So," Rayzor said then, briskly returning to business. "The asteroid belts. I have their approximate locations and ideas on how to get out of them if you're unlucky enough to find yourself in one."

He held out the tablet, and Shiro took it. "Do you know how to use one of these?" Rayzor asked, his tone neither condescending nor dismissive.

For answer, Shiro tapped a particular display on the screen, and a 3-D projection of an asteroid belt popped up over the tablet.

"Yes," Shiro said. His dark grey eyes were confident, but not confrontational. "I do."

Rayzor nodded, smiling slightly despite himself. "You humans do surprise me sometimes," he said. "It's truly amazing that you can learn so quickly."

Shiro shrugged, but it wasn't a dismissive gesture, just an expressive one. "Takes practice," he said. "Well - I'd better be going."

With that, the two leaders turned down their separate corridors, one towards the bridge, one towards his Lion.

Even as Shiro turned and began walking, he heard a voice come in over his comms - it was Allura, saying excitedly that she'd located Keith's crystal on a nearby star.

"We'll have to hurry," she said. "Shiro, how fast can you be here?"

Shiro started to run even as he replied. "I'm on my way. Have Keith ready to meet me in five at the following coordinates-"

Rayzor reached the bridge just in time to see the Black Lion take off, heading for the small shuttle. The Red Paladin used his jetpack to reach the Lion, and then the Black Lion headed down to the planet's surface.

Coran's voice came in over Rayzor's comms. The shuttle had a direct line to the control room's communications network, and the Altean's voice could be heard clearly over the bridge's communications channel.

"We'll wait out here for them," he said. "If they get back soon enough, maybe we can go on to look for the others."

Rayzor nodded. "Affirmative. Should we plan to meet up at beta coordinates in five hours?"

He and Coran had set up a system of coordinates as meeting locations in case of something like this, when the shuttle, the ship, and the Black Lion were all spread out over different areas of space. If anyone lost sight or contact with Rayzor's ship, the beta coordinates were where they would all meet up once again.

"Affirmative," Coran said.

Shiro's voice came over the comms then. Rayzor's comms team had given Shiro a direct line to the ship's control room. It allowed the Black Paladin to communicate with his team and Rayzor separately if needed.

"Affirmative," Shiro said. "Meeting at beta coordinates in five hours. I'll let you know what we find down here."

Then the lines went silent. From the comms desk, an officer spoke up. "Sir," he said. "They certainly don't seem…like the Paladins of old, do they?"

Rayzor looked out at the stars, and he shook his head thoughtfully. "No," he said. "No, they do not."


	7. Mid-afternoon Meal

They came back to the ship at midday to eat, and Keith carefully brought his blood red gem - almost the size of his own head - to the chest where the others were kept before he joined his team in the mess hall. Only a Paladin's handprint could open the chest where the crystals were kept. The chest was kept locked in Rayzor's quarters at all times, to be certain there was no chance of the crystals sustaining damage or sabtaouge.

"Better safe than sorry" should have been on the Proselyt flag. _Hell, maybe it was_ , Keith thought as he joined Allura at the table. Everyone else was still going through the line, but Allura smiled and waved a hand in greeting as Keith came to sit across from her.

"Almost there," Allura said. "Only two more to - "

She broke off suddenly, seeming a bit puzzled. "Allura?" Keith asked her, but she held up a hand, requesting silence.

"That's - that's a bit strange," she said. "I think - "

Then Shiro came over to them and sat down by Keith, across from Allura, and for a moment, he also seemed bewildered at Allura's expression.

"Um…Allura?" Shiro asked, his grey eyes slightly confused as she stared at him. "What is it?"

Allura felt her cheeks blush, and she hid her face in her hands in a sudden wave of slight embarrassment and humor.

"Well…" she said, "…I've been just in contact with the mice - just seeing how they are doing without us in the Castle, you know - they've been quite happy, really, and they have plenty of food and water, as usual - but - well - they told me that I should - give you - "

Shiro was turning pinker as she kept talking, and she realized that Keith had stopped chewing and was looking between them, a strange blend of uncertainty and hilarity on his face.

"…what?…" she asked.

Shiro coughed and swallowed before answering. "No, no," he said, almost weakly. "…you go first…"

She was still a bit bewildered by his and Keith's expressions, so she finished her sentence in a rush. "They're-saying-one-of-my-necklaces-is-shimmering-like-a-star-on-my-dresser-and-it's-absolutely-one-hundred-percent-your-crystal-and-that- _really_ -is-completely-fine-with-me-I-have- _dozens_ -of-necklaces-and-I-I-can-make-sure-you-get-it-once-we-get-back-to-the-Castle-tomorrow-"

Keith finished chewing and swallowed, looking intently down at his plate as Shiro let out a breath. "Oh. Okay."

The Black Paladin reached up and scratched the back of his head, almost absent mindedly. "It felt like I'd forgotten someth -" he broke off, looking mortified, and Keith nearly spat out a mouthful of juice as he started choking back what seemed to be laughter.

Allura didn't quite get why Keith was laughing so hard, but she knew she desired him to stop before the others reached the table. So, taking her napkin, she reached out and lightly smacked Keith across the forehead with it. Keith still looked like he wanted to die laughing, but at least he seemed to know what her point had been, because he grinned at her, and she smiled back despite the slight annoyance that she still felt at his reaction to her words.

Keith's laughter subsided completely as he gave Shiro a look that said, _Don't worry, I know what you meant, I found my crystal already so I know what it's like -_ and Shiro let out a relieved 'Whew,' just as Pidge came over and sat down next to him.

" 'S up," she greeted them all. "So, just two more crystals to go, huh?"

Shiro and Allura looked at each other, unsure of what to say, but then Keith spoke up as he speared another meatball on his spork.

"Actually," Keith said, "It looks like an Altean crystal somewhere back in the Castle is Shiro's - so it's just one left to go."

"Really?" Pidge asked, raising her cup of space juice. She finished it in a few deep gulps and smacked her lips. "Sweet. We can get back faster than."

"Yes," Allura said. "Yes, that will be nice. Maybe by the end of today we'll have all the crystals we need - and then we'll be able to go back to the Castle tomorrow. The recharge cycle should be completely finished by then, and we can get back to our normal way of - well, just back to normal."

Lance slid onto the seat next to Allura and sighed dramatically as he picked up his knife and spork. "Castle Sweet Castle," he said longingly. "I do miss my bed."

"Don't you mean the twenty square feet in the lounge that you've claimed for yourself?" Keith asked, and the rest of the meal was spent in (mostly) pleasant debate over who had claimed the most space in the lounge.

Privately, Allura thought it was an even split between Hunk and Lance, but with a smile, she refrained from joining in and simply enjoyed listening to them all talk about something far less frightening than a universe at war with the Galra.

Down at the other end of the table where he sat with his crew, Rayzor was doing much the same thing. He found the Paladins - surprisingly interesting. They bickered and quarreled over some of the silliest things sometimes, but when it came down to it, they would - literally - be willing to die for each other.

He thought that Arris would have liked them.

 _I **do** , you twit,_ he could imagine Arris saying. _It's not like I'm just floating around in the afterlife waiting for you to come over. I have opinions about everything. You should hear what King Alfor thinks about that Black Paladin._

 _Good things to be sure,_ Rayzor told his brother in his mind.

 _Oh, yes. Positively stellar._

Inwardly, Rayzor groaned at the - frankly terrible - pun.

 _Get it?_ Arris said. _Guardian Spirit of the Sky? Stellar?_

With another mental promise to _hand_ Arris his _ass_ in the afterlife, Rayzor turned his focus towards listening to Pidge beginning to wax on about the beauty of the shuttle's systems.

"So efficient! So lovely!" she was saying, waving her spork around her head. "It's like - it's like Mozart met a computer and decided to compose music through code!"

Lance looked at her strangely then, as if she had begun to eat with her feet instead of her hands, and it was such a comical expression Rayzor almost snorted in laughter, but he composed his face quickly and went back to his meal, thinking that he'd have to ask Coran at some point if he understood who this 'Mo-zart' was.

A technical genius? Or perhaps an architect of some kind?

Humans were so _very_ strange at times.


	8. A Good Man Goes to War

That afternoon, Hunk found his crystal on a beautiful, mountainous planet that had hills and valleys that he would have loved to explore farther. He did not end up digging it out of a mountain, as he had feared, but he told Shiro once he got back to the Lion that it had been quite an ordeal to make sure it didn't crack when he'd finally pulled it free.

"But isn't it beautiful?!" Hunk said, showing the glowing golden crystal to his friend with a huge smile on his face. Shiro grinned back at him, nodding.

"It is really beautiful," he agreed. "Almost reminds of - uh - amber - I think." He intentionally kept his tone light, but inwardly, Shiro winced at the few seconds it had taken him to remember such an easy word.

It was hard to remember things from Earth, sometimes, as if most of the memories before Kerberos were…well…not gone - not exactly - but on a very high shelf in his mind, covered in dust. It frustrated Shiro more than he let on, especially when it put something so simple as a word out of easy recollection.

But Hunk was nodding his head in delighted agreement as they went back up the ramp, and even as he took up a seat in the passenger section of the Black Lion, and Shiro went up to the pilot's section, he could hear Hunk's happy chattering.

"I mean, I was getting kinda nervous, you know?" Hunk was saying as they left the atmosphere of the planet behind them. Hunk kept talking as Shiro began heading back towards the shuttle where Allura, Coran, and the other Paladins were waiting to meet up and head back towards Rayzor's ship. "I mean, I was thinking - _man_ , I hope I'm not the only one to end up without a crystal for his Lion - not that Yellow would hate me or anything - but I'd still feel pretty ba-"

Suddenly Rayzor's voice sounded, and Shiro heard the words he'd been dreading all this time.

"Galra ship incoming - Shuttle, Paladin, do you copy?! Galra ship inbound to your location! GET OUT OF THERE NOW!"

That was all Hunk heard before Shiro pulled the Black Lion into a sudden, corkscrewing nose dive, diving straight into the asteroid field they'd been so cautious about avoiding on their way in. There was juddering, and shaking, and Hunk's words were cut off suddenly, but he kept close hold of his crystal and didn't throw up because he knew he couldn't right now, he knew he couldn't, and Shiro was shouting back at him to seal his helmet, so Hunk did.

Okay, he _definitely_ couldn't throw up right now - thank _god_ his stomach was mostly empty - and that he'd buckled into his seat out of habit - _oh, oh, oh, no, no - Hunk - keep it together, man,_ he thought to himself, but then Shiro was shouting something else back at him, and Hunk forced himself to listen.

"Hunk - use your jetpack - get back to the shuttle with the others!" Shiro shouted as they careened between two asteroids that just barely missed them.

Hunk was scared now, he was really scared, he thought that maybe Shiro was going to just space him without any further explanation, but Shiro glanced back at him then, and Hunk saw. Hunk saw what Shiro intended to do.

The Black Lion had been Zarkon's Lion…and Zarkon wanted it back.

He wanted it even more than he wanted any of the other Lions.

Hunk understood all that in a flash, and he also understood that Shiro was telling him to go, to get to the others, to get out of danger while he still could...because Shiro didn't think he would be make it out himself.

Hunk shook his head, gripping the crystal tight in his hands, trying to deny what was happening, and then he saw Shiro's hand reaching for the lever that would release Hunk's safety harness.

"Hunk - I'm sorry!" he shouted, and then suddenly Hunk was floating, and then falling, falling away from Black, towards the shuttle where Lance was telling him he was coming to get him, that all Hunk had to do was to stay calm and use his jetpack to keep himself steady, and then the Black Lion's front paws were out on either side of Hunk, protecting him from the smaller asteroids, and then - finally - Lance was there.

The Blue Paladin was was secured to a safely harness, and he reached out with both arms and had grabbed Hunk around the waist.

"I gotcha, buddy," he was saying. "I gotcha - just hold onto me - we're fine - Allura's pulling us in to the shuttle now - just relax, buddy, we're okay - "

Once they were safe inside the shuttle, Hunk looked around at the rest of his team. Coran was at the comms, and Pidge had opened up a panel in the floor and was checking wires and typing frantically into some kind of device. Keith was in the pilot's seat - he'd come along because he'd wanted to try flying one of these shuttles - and Allura was helping get the safety harness off of Lance, and everyone seemed to be talking at once.

Coran was speaking into the comms that linked directly to the main bridge on Rayzor's ship, his hand white-knuckled with tension, but his voice clear and sharp.

"Rendezvous at beta coordinates," Coran said, and Hunk heard the tension in his voice, but could tell it was tightly controlled. "Bridge, come in, go to beta - go to beta _now_ \- do not wait for us, I repeat - _do not wait_ \- get out, get out _now-_ "

Rayzor's voice replied then, and it was almost just as tense as Coran's voice. "Bring the shuttle back first - we can wait for you - we can - "

Then Shiro's voice rose over Rayzor's, and everyone went quiet really fast, because Shiro was saying something that none of them had wanted to hear.

"They - they found me," he said, and Hunk could tell his friend's voice was shaking although he was trying not to let it show. "Listen - I'm going - I'm going to lead them away from you-"

In the pilot's seat, Keith shook his head from side to side in denial, but Shiro's voice continued.

"Rayzor, get your ship out. They haven't seen you yet. You've got to run. Keith, take the shuttle into the asteroid field - I can buy you enough time to do that - "

"But it's only one ship!" Hunk cried out, confused and panicked and terrified. "Black can take a single ship, right? Blue did that - she did it, and she was fine!"

Shiro's voice broke off for a second, but then he continued. "It's - it's not just a ship," he said. "It's - hers. It's the Druid's."

At the mention of the witch Haggar, Keith immediately grabbed the comms from Coran and shouted at Rayzor, his voice almost a roar, "Get out of here! Whatever you do, get _out_! _Get your crew out **now**!_ "

Rayzor cursed then, gave the order to his crew to run. But then he said, his voice steel and hard, " - Shuttle - Paladin - we will wait for you at beta - _I repeat_ \- _we will wait for you at beta_ \- we _will_ get you back home -"

"Roger that," Keith said. "Shuttle out." He flicked the shuttle's main comms off and they were back to their usual comms. All anyone could hear on the shuttle was Shiro or each other.

And then Shiro said something that made the blood run cold in Keith's veins.


	9. The Hard Choice

"Keith…" Shiro said, and his voice was unsteady, but still audible. "Keith, get them out of here."

Keith had already begun to take the shuttle into the asteroid field for better cover, but at the sound of those words, he knew what Shiro was really saying.

 _I'm not going to make it out of here. You need to take charge of the team._

"No-" Keith said, and from the way Coran looked at Keith then, he knew what Shiro had meant too.

Everyone knew. They just didn't want to say it out loud.

"Shiro," Allura said into her comms, her voice shaking, "Shiro, what are you doing?"

Then a comms screen - one with audio and visual - appeared on the shuttle's screen, and everyone stared at it, at the figure of the Black Paladin as he said goodbye.

Shiro's face had gone as white as his hair, and he was clearly forcing his voice to be precise, commanding, completely steady.

"I'll buy you time. Get into the asteroid field and lose them. I know you can do it, Keith - you're the only pilot who can."

Keith shook his head again, and Pidge saw the Red Paladin was biting his lip so hard, it had split and begun to bleed, but Shiro's voice suddenly went sharp, as sharp as steel, but it was not harsh.

It was the voice of someone who knew he had no time left, and that time was what his team needed in order to escape.

"Keith Kogane - that's an order. Get them out of here. _Now_."

At the sound of his last name, Keith's fingers gripped white on the controls, and then he turned the shuttle away from Shiro, away from the Black Lion, straight into the heart of asteroid field. Even as he did so, there was a flicker of light nearby, and a sudden blaze of laser fire shot past the shuttle and hit a nearby asteroid.

The Druid's ship was firing at them.

Lance saw a sudden black shadow appear at the side of their shuttle, rising up to block the shuttle from the Druid's fire, and suddenly there was a roar - Black's roar, screaming defiance at the huge Galra ship.

Even as the Lion roared, it raced forward and dived. It dived, avoiding laser fire and beams of black light that should have hit a dozen times over, it dived and soared and leapt among the stars, all the time drawing fire from the tiny shuttle that was already disappearing among the asteroids and roaring its defiance at the witch who had finally hunted down her prey.

Even as Pidge watched, too horror-struck to make a sound, a beam of black energy suddenly enveloped the Lion, and its roars ended. It began to be pulled towards the Druid's ship, and all they could do was watch as the Black Lion and her Paladin disappeared from sight.

Pidge screamed then, a sound of terror and despair and suddenly, Hunk couldn't take it anymore. He shoved the amber crystal into Lance's hands, ripped off his helmet, ran to the back of the shuttle, and was violently sick on the floor.


	10. Left Behind

Even as Rayzor's voice told him that a Galra ship was headed straight for them, Shiro knew whose ship it was.

She always found him. He'd been foolish to think she wouldn't this time.

But he wasn't going to let her take his team too.

As he told Keith to get out, he saw the terror and fear on his teams' faces, tried to keep from showing any on his own. He managed it just long enough to see that Keith had started to run, was going to get the team to safety, and then Shiro reached out and ended the comms link to the shuttle.

He had wanted to say goodbye - and in a way, he had. All he could do now was buy them time, and make sure the witch couldn't track them down.

He took a precious second to pull off his helmet, intent on destroying the comms unit inside so that Haggar couldn't use it as a way to reach his team, but then he saw the Druid ship had fired at the shuttle, and everything he did in the next few moments was sheer reflex.

Black and Shiro flew as they never had before, and as Shiro saw the shuttle that held his friends - his family - everything dear to him - disappear into the asteroid field behind him, he felt a savage smile of triumph cross his face.

He and Black had done what they'd intended to do - but there was no reason they couldn't still evade the Druids for a short time. Give them a run for their money.

So they did, if only for a few moments.

As Black flew and leapt among the stars, a voice - Rayzor's voice - sounded from the second comms unit, and he was asking Shiro if he could still make it out, if he would be able to meet them at the beta coordinates.

A screen opened up, flickering and juddering, but Shiro felt a sudden gladness that he was able to see someone - anyone - before the Druids took him again.

"No." Shiro said, and he tried to keep his voice tight, controlled, but damn it all, he couldn't manage to keep it from shaking as he continued, still piloting Black, still flying, still free. For now.

"I - I won't make it to the meet site."

The screen - filled with static as it was - still showed the expression in Rayzor's eyes clearly. He made as if to speak, but Shiro cut over him.

"I'm going to destroy the shielding device you gave Black - and I'll destroy all the comms and star maps too. The Galra won't find your planet - or the Lions - or the Castle."

The Black Paladin felt his stomach roil and churn at the thought of what Haggar was going to do to him for that, but he forced the next words out nonetheless. "Take - take care of my team, okay?"

Rayzor nodded. He seemed unable to speak.

Just then, Shiro felt the purple lightning envelop Black, and the comms started to shudder and buzz, even as he reached towards the device to end the call. As Shiro pressed the 'terminate' button, and the call shorted out with a final crackle, he drew back his cybernetic arm and activated the weapons setting.

Shiro reached out, and with three harsh strikes, he broke the star map into pieces, destroyed the shielding device that Rayzor had given Black, and pulverized the comms unit he'd just switched off. Finally - lastly - he picked up his Paladin's helmet and crushed the comms inside.

As the last link to his team crumbled between his cybernetic fingers, he heard Black reaching out to him, her voice tired, almost timid.

 _My pilot?_ she asked, and he said gently, "Yeah, Black?"

He answered her out loud, more out of habit than anything else.

The Druids' beam was pulling them into the landing bay now, and Shiro wanted to close his eyes, to _not_ see the all-too familiar purple lines of light that lined the walls, the ceiling, the floor, but he gritted his jaw and concentrated instead on Black's voice.

Black was scared - really scared - and it almost made Shiro cry when he heard the fear and despair in his Lion's voice as she spoke inside his mind.

 _I cannot protect you,_ she said. _I tried - but I cannot - the Druid's magic is too strong - I cannot - I cannot prevent them from taking you-_

"It's okay," he told her. He reached out with his left hand and laid it on the control panel in front of him. It was all he could do to comfort his Lion, and he wished he could do more before -

Well. Before the end.

 _I don't know what to do,_ she told him then, and he almost smiled at how very much they were alike in that regard. He had to swallow before he answered her that time.

"Don't - don't go over - to Zarkon," he said. "No matter what happens, Black - don't let him - don't let him take you."

A sudden ray of hope - a desperate idea - suddenly appeared in Black's voice.

 _My pilot - there is something I could try - I could - I could go back to sleep…_

Shiro sees that Black's paws have almost reached the hanger bay floor now, and he nods in understanding.

"You mean - like you did after King Alfor locked you in the Castle?"

 _Yes. I do not know if it will work, but -_

"Do it," Shiro tells her.

 _But if I am asleep - I will not be able to aid you -_

The outer bay doors cycle shut, and Shiro saw a familiar figure walking towards the Black Lion.

The witch was coming for him.

"Do it, Black." He said again, and he kept his voice quiet and steady. Somehow it's easier then he thought. "We're out of time."

 _I am sorry._

Shiro got to his feet, brought his weaponized arm up to bear, and turned around to face where the ramp would open.

"It's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault."

Black's voice faded a little, but she still whispered to him. _Stay strong, my pilot. I will try to find a way to help y-_

Mid-word, her voice broke off and faded entirely, and there was sudden emptiness where Black's presence had been in his mind.

Shiro felt a sudden pang of loss, of fear, and an awful, aching loneliness.

"Black?"

Nothing.

Shiro somehow knew that if Black had gone to sleep, she would have answered him somehow. Maybe not with words, but - but she would have answered him _somehow_. This silence - it felt like she was just - gone. Like someone had closed a door in his mind, and she had been left outside, leaving him completely alone.

"Black?!"

He heard the sound of the ramp descending to the ground, and he felt a sudden surge of panic run through him at the knowledge that someone stood down there who was going to take Black away from him forever.

Hell with it. He wasn't giving up his Lion without a fight.

Shiro came to stand at the top of the ramp and took up a defensive position, just like he had at the Castle when Sendak had attacked. He expected Haggar to be there at the bottom of the ramp, with at least two of her Druids beside her.

But it wasn't Haggar standing there when the ramp hit the ground with a very final thud.

It was Zarkon.

The Galra Emperor held a bayard in one hand, down at his side, and he was looking up at Shiro with no discernible expression on his face.

"You would fight me, _child_?" He asked, and the question was almost a laugh.

Shiro felt his heart stutter and leap inside his chest then, and he hoped he could keep himself from shaking as every instinct in him screamed for him to run.

 _Black,_ he thought, _Black, please - please answer me -_

"Don't bother calling out to her," the Emperor said. Shiro felt a chill creep up his spine at the realization that Zarkon had heard him calling out to the Black Lion.

"-she's already forgotten your name."

Shiro snarled then, in denial and fear, and he tried one last time to reach out to his Lion, but he was met with a silence that seemed to go on forever.

Black was gone.

 _Had Zarkon - had he already forced Black back under his control?_

Shiro remembered how scared Black had been only a few short moments ago, the terror and fear she had felt at the thought of Zarkon being her pilot once again, and he felt anger and rage drown out his own fear then.

Black was no one's property.

She wasn't just a weapon.

She was _Black_.


	11. Defiance

Zarkon had to give credit where credit was due.

The witch's Champion had spirit.

" _She's not yours_!" Even as Champion spoke, he lunged forward, trying - foolishly, hopelessly - to strike out at Zarkon.

Zarkon didn't even deign to raise his weapon. He stayed right where he was, raised a hand - utter contempt in the gesture - and struck Champion in the chest with a single bolt of purple and black lightning.

Even as Champion screamed in pain and fell, Zarkon walked past him and started up the ramp, intent on reclaiming the Black Lion for himself. As he passed by Champion, he realized the fool had reached out and grabbed hold of his cloak.

"No…" Champion said, and his teeth were clenched, and his eyes were blazing. "No…she's not-"

Zarkon glanced down at him, utter scorn in his eyes, and kicked Shiro in the throat. Shiro fell backwards onto the hanger floor, coughing raggedly, reaching up to hold his throat with both hands, trying to breathe.

It was clearly hard to do. It was even harder once Zarkon blasted him with black lightning again for daring to touch him.

Shiro screamed again, feeling his entire body convulse, everything around him wavering and blurring from the pain. Through the spots that flickered in his field of vision, he saw Zarkon look back up at the Lion and say, almost incredulously,

"You really thought _he_ could be your pilot?"

Shiro felt almost glad at the silence from Black then.

If Black didn't respond to Zarkon, it meant that she hadn't gone over to him yet.

But then a familiar form was standing by the Galra Emperor, and Shiro suddenly felt his chest constrict with an emotion that he knew all too well. The memories were blurry - or most of them were - but something instinctual was wired into him at this point. Whenever he saw Haggar, he was immediately, horribly afraid.

He hated how easily the witch could do this to him, how quickly her very presence sent fear screaming to the forefront of his mind.

But this time, anger blazed there too. Haggar had fired at his team. She had tried to kill his friends.

Shiro narrowed his eyes up at her, unable to manage anything else just yet. His muscles still shook from the black lightning Zarkon had struck him with earlier, and he knew she would probably do the same thing to him in - oh, about two minutes.

But at least his team had gotten away.

The witch smiled down at him, and Shiro suddenly remembered something - a quote from a movie he'd seen once, with Keith and Matt - a long, long time ago.

' _Death smiles at us all. All a man could do is smile back.'_

So Shiro smiled back at the witch, and it was a smile of defiance that showed all his teeth.

He wasn't hers. He never would be.

When Haggar spoke, her voice was low, and pleased, and maliciously sweet.

 _Champion,_ she said, in that tone of poisoned honey. _It's been far too long._


	12. Epilogue (Together at the End)

Keith piloted the shuttle through the asteroid field in complete silence, focusing all his attention on dodging the asteroids and getting out of this crazy place alive, his teeth clenched into a silent snarl, his knuckles white as he gripped the controls.

He had to get them out safely, Shiro had trusted him to do that, so he couldn't spare any thought towards his feelings, or how he hated himself for leaving his best friend behind to the Galra - _no, focus,_ Keith told himself, _self hate later, pilot **now**_.

He'd repeated that to himself over and over, but especially when the Black Lion disappeared into the Druid's ship and Pidge had screamed in despair. The others had also reacted to the sight, each in their own way. Lance collapsed onto one of the shuttle's passenger seats and buried his face in his hands, sobs wrenching out of his throat in hoarse, ugly gasps. Hunk had curled into a sad huddle on the floor next to him, silent tears pouring down his face, one hand on Lance's arm.

The Green Paladin had almost lost her mind when Shiro had been taken by the Galra. She'd screamed and begun slamming her fists against any surface she could reach - not people, _never_ people - but any inanimate object within her reach was hit and hit and hit again.

Hunk knew that if she kept that up, Pidge was going to hurt herself, so he reached out, put his arms around her from the back, and just kind of sank back onto the floor with her, trying to let her know that he was there for her too, even though he couldn't really say anything yet. Eventually her screams gave way to sobbing, and now she was just crying quietly and holding onto Hunk's arms.

Coran had turned away from the sight and sunk down into a chair, burying his face in his hands. He hadn't moved from that position since.

Allura hadn't budged an inch from where she'd been standing. She stood still as a statue, still looking back towards where the Druid's ship had taken Shiro.

As they finally came out of the asteroid field, Keith allowed himself a shaky breath, and let the tears he'd been holding back begin to fall.

Dammit _. Dammit. **Dammit**._

His hands began to shake on the controls, and he had to call to Coran to come and pilot. Keith's voice broke as he said the Royal Advisor's name, but Coran was at his side in an instant.

As soon as Coran had taken the controls from him, Keith bolted out of his chair and went straight to the farthest corner of the shuttle that he could, away from everyone else, away from what he was sure to be their looks of hatred and betrayal.

But Keith was sure that they couldn't hate him any more than he already hated himself.

As he reached the farthest corner of the shuttle, Keith felt all of his energy suddenly leave him. He stumbled forward, catching himself against the wall only just in time to slide down to the floor and curl into a ball, hugging his knees to his chest, trying to disappear, trying to hide from the knowledge that his friend was alone, and taken by the Druids.

He'd left Shiro behind, and the Druids had taken him.

Yeah, Shiro had told him to do it.

But now _\- now the Druids had Shiro._

 _What were they going to do to him?_

Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder, and Keith tensed, staying absolutely still, keeping his back towards the others, keeping his head down, hunched between his shoulders.

They hated him. They _had_ to hate him now.

"Keith…"

That was Lance's voice.

 _Was Lance going to hit him or something?_

Keith almost wanted him to - but it didn't sound like Lance was angry with him.

 _Why wasn't Lance angry?_

"Keith," Lance was saying, "Keith, come on, come back over to the others. You shouldn't - you shouldn't be alone right now."

The Blue Paladin had expected Keith to argue back, but he hadn't quite expected Keith to turn his head and raise his eyes to meet Lance's own.

"I should - I should be," Keith said, his voice miserable, almost inaudible. Tears ran down his face, and his irises had gone completely, utterly yellow, and when he spoke, it looked like his teeth were shaper than they had been before, and his fingers were - oh, God, they almost had claws now instead of fingernails.

Lance didn't startle back, though he almost did. Keith's Galra heritage showed through whenever he felt strong emotion, and Lance had never seen him like this.

He looked terrifying.

Keith must be in so much pain.

"No, man," Lance said, patting Keith's shoulder even as he felt more tears slide down his own face. "No one should be alone. Come on. You need us - and we need you."

Keith rose to his feet unsteadily then, and slowly, he followed Lance back to where the others sat or stood.

Everyone looked up at Keith as he came back, and for a second, he was afraid of what they might do. Lance had wanted to help him, but - maybe - maybe some of them felt differently - Keith wouldn't blame them if they did -

But then Pidge and Hunk reached out at the same time and pulled Keith into a hug, so that now all three of them were half-sitting, half-kneeling on the floor together. As they hugged him, Lance saw Keith's face crumple up in misery, and he started to cry, burying his face in his hands, and he wouldn't look at any of them. His entire body was shaking and shuddering as if it wanted to fly apart.

"I'm-I'm-s-sorry," he choked out, but someone put a gentle hand on his arm, and he realized it was Allura. She'd moved from where she'd been standing and had come to crouch down by his other side, and - and she was trying to reassure him.

"Keith," she said, "you got us out. Shiro -"

She had to swallow after she said the word, but she continued with only a slight sound of tears in her voice. "-he wanted - he wanted you - to get us - us out - and - and - it's not your fault, Keith, it's _not_ -"

Keith kept crying, and Pidge and Hunk both hugged him tighter, and Lance put a hand on Keith's shoulder. Allura stayed where she was for a moment longer, but then she got up and moved back to where Coran was piloting the shuttle all alone.

"I think - I think they need a bit of space," she said. Coran nodded, clearly unable to manage any words at the moment. Allura reached out and put her hand on her old friend's shoulder, as much to gain as to give support.

"Coran," she said, and her voice almost broke before she continued, "tell me - tell me we'll find a way to-"

Coran nodded once, emphatically, silently.

She almost allowed herself to cry then, but then there was a sudden, loud crackle of energy, and the shuttle's front end was suddenly enveloped in a purple web of energy, like a fly caught in a spider's web.

Even as Allura realized what this meant, Coran spat out a curse that was much, much worse than 'quiznak' and slammed a hand onto the dashboard.

"What-what is it?" Lance asked. He'd come to stand behind Allura, and was staring in growing horror at the sight before him. His shoulders slumped, and he swallowed, once. "Oh…quiznak," he said.

They hadn't escaped the Galra ship after all. It had somehow been waiting for them outside of the asteroid field...and now the ship had caught them in a - a web of some kind - and it was drawing their little shuttle in towards a landing bay.

Allura turned then, looking at the Paladins behind her. They had realized something was wrong, and all of them were getting to their feet. When they saw their situation, everyone went deathly quiet.

No one needed to say anything.

But then Hunk did.

"I'm going to jettison the crystal," he said. "I don't want the Galra to get it."

At his words, Allura nodded and reached for the proper controls, already setting up the necessary sequence to help Hunk jettison the crystal.

"Coran," she said, "can we still comm Rayzor's ship?"

She saw the Royal Advisor try, then shake his head. "I'm afraid not, Princess," he said. "They're preventing the signal from reaching outside our ship."

Keith pointed at the comms device. His eyes were still bright yellow, but his fingers were back to normal, and his voice was empty of anything but practicality when he spoke. "We'll want to break that before we land. I can do it, if you like."

Coran handed the device to him, and Keith retreated a few steps so that he'd have more room to smash the device into smaller pieces.

Pidge started moving then too, opening up the panel in the floor and twisting wires apart, smashing a few delicate looking pieces of equipment.

"I'm erasing our flight history and tracking signature," she said. "I'm not having the Galra track their way back to Rayzor through this shuttle's systems."

Lance helped Hunk jettison the crystal just as everyone else finished their tasks. Then all they could do was wait for the shuttle to dock.

"Well," Coran said, standing up and turning towards the Paladins, "I just wanted to say - it's been an honor serving with you."

Allura stood then, too. "For me as well."

Hunk nodded, and Lance did too. Keith scrubbed his face with the back of one hand and looked down at Pidge, who was looking out the window with a half-defiant expression on her face.

"Can we at least fire our lasers at them?" she asked Coran, who smiled back at her.

He shook his head. "They suppressed our ability to fire lasers."

"Not these lasers!" Lance said, and he raised his arms to mimic laser guns, just like he had all that time ago. His fingers were shaking now as he pointed them at towards the hanger bay where Galra soldiers waited for them, but he still made the sound effects all the same. "Pow Pow Pow!"

Hunk let out a shaky laugh at Lance's joke, and Allura smiled at them both. Keith sighed and thought about trying to keep the enemy at bay with a sword.

The odds were not in his favor on that front.

And if he tried to fight back against these many Galra soldiers at once, it was likely they'd fire on his team, and some of them would get hurt.

Keith sighed again, but this time, only to himself.

No heroic last stands, then.

At least not yet.

Then they all turned to face the enemy together, standing shoulder to shoulder as their pod landed and the doors hissed open.

As the first footsteps sounded outside, Pidge raised both her hands towards the open doors and made a rude gesture that was - Keith hoped - universally known. He smirked down at her then, knowing they were out of time, but grateful that she'd made him smile, right here at the end.

"Nice one, Pidge," he said.


	13. Author's Note

Greetings, reader! Thank you for clicking on this story! :D

This story is part of a series, but it can be read on its own.

If you're new to these stories, or if you're wondering what order they go in, here's the order of my 'Lost Paladins' series:

1) Lost Paladins

2) Fever Dreams

3) Team Building Exercises

4) Pidge one-shot

5) Red Means Blood

6) Chocolate Chip Cookies

7) Quality Time (references my fic 'You Can't Take the Sky From Me')

8) Broken Barriers

9) On the Edge

10) Scavenger Hunt

11) Broken Paladins

12) Cabin Fever

and the newest two that I have just posted:

13) Adventures in Babysitting

14) Family Is More Than Blood

Yup...you can tell I really love the Voltron: Legendary Defender show, huh? :D

But please, feel free to read this story on its own merit if you like - I love it when people read and review my stories! :D :D

The stories in this series do build on each other, so it may make a bit more sense if you read the stories in the order listed above. I would hate for you to feel lost or confused. :-)

There should be some more stories coming - I never thought I'd write this many, but all of the encouragement and support from you wonderful readers led to _everything_ after 'Lost Paladins'. :D :D Your reviews and encouragement are the life-blood that help me continue to write this series. Thank you!

As always, reviews help me know what people enjoyed/thought was interesting - your feedback helps this writer stay encouraged and get more ideas! It really makes my day to read what people thought/enjoyed - and feel free to PM me if you like! :D :D

Happy Reading!


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